Oh Iouallauan,
Why dost thou mask thyself?
Put on thy disguise
Don thy golden cape

My God,
Thy precious water had
come down from Coapan*
It had made the cypress
a Quetzal
The fire serpent had been made
a Quetzal Serpent
Want had gone from me

Mayhap I shall die and perish
-I, the Tender Maize
Like a precious green stone is my heart,
Yet I shall see gold in it
I shall be content if first I mature
The War Chief is born

My God,
give me in part plenteous
Tender maize
Thy worshipper looketh toward
Thy mountain
I shall be content if first I ripen
The warrior Chief is born


*Serpent Hill in nahuatl

11/13/2002

Author's Note: Ancient hymn preserved in the Codex Matritensis of Fray Bernardino de Sahagun and Florentine Codex. Xipe Totec, "Our Lord The Flayed One", although clearly a complex and multivocal symbolic entity, it's most fundamentally an embodyment of the concept of renewal and the promise of regeneration.

Posted on 11/14/2002
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